Today Christians all over the world are ceremoniously washing each other’s feet, but apparently some congregations have altered this ancient practice to make it about washing hands instead.
At ECF Vital Practices, Lisa Meeder Turnbull writes about the implications of turning our focus from Jesus’ humble act of service into a reflection on Pilate’s act of hand-washing:
I confess that I scoffed when I first heard of this …But now I’m having second thoughts. Maybe there’s something to this hand washing thing, this Pilate thing.
What if we were to approach this as a moment of truth-telling? What if we could take a hard look at ourselves and admit that we all too often do wash our hands of it, whatever “it” may be….
…I wish we had better health care for everyone, but what can I do? It is what it is.
…I hate seeing so many people come to the end of their unemployment benefits, but what can I do? At least we support the food pantry.
…I know that child is in a bad situation, but my hands are tied.:
…I wish we had better health care for everyone, but what can I do? It is what it is.
Read her full post here. What do you think of the idea of washing our hands instead of our feet on this day?
Along more traditional lines, the pope today washed the feet of 12 young people detained at a juvenile correctional facility in Rome. Not so traditionally for a pope, the 12 included two girls. And the head of the Church of England, Queen Elizabeth II, handed out traditional “Maundy money” to the elderly at a service in Oxford.